DVD Sales: Blind Siding the Competition

April 7th, 2010

There were several new releases on the sales chart this week; as many as nine, depending on how you look at things. The best selling DVD was definitely a new release: The Blind Side sold 2.54 million units generating $41.63 million in sales.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon was pushed into second place during its first full week of release, selling 2.17 million units and bringing in $50.99 million. It has already sold 5.33 million units, generating $125.40 million in revenue. This easily puts it at number one for 2010. The Princess and the Frog slipped to third place with 443,000 units for the week and 2.37 million units after two. It is very likely that if the film hasn't broken even yet, it will soon. Old Dogs climbed a spot to fourth with 175,000 units for the week and 940,000 units after three, lifting its total sales to $16.26 million. Rounding out the top five was The Men Who Stare at Goats with 174,000 units and $3.17 million in sales.

Brothers just missed the top five with 171,000 units sold, earning $2.90 million in opening week sales while Fantastic Mr. Fox debuted in seventh place with 129,000 units / $2.32 million in sales. Mad Men: Season Three opened in tenth place with 91,000 units sold, but its TV on DVD pricing meant it placed fifth by the total sale metric with $3.13 million. The final "new" release to chart was Twilight in Folks: Saga of the Real Town with 45,000 units sold during its first full week of release. Adding in early sales and it has moved 138,000 units, generating $1.79 million in revenue.

Two new releases you don't see on the chart this week are the special editions for Toy Story. This is because while they were released on Blu-ray / DVD combo packs, they were counted by the studio as Blu-ray sales. This explains why overall Blu-ray sales shot up 43% to $45.5 million for the week, which represents growth of 89% from the same weekend last year. For DVD sales, it was the best week for the year and the seventh best week of all time. Blu-ray represented 16% of total sales and 21% of the top 20 comparison, which was only a little above average. The best selling Blu-ray of the week was Toy Story at just over 500,000 units, while Toy Story 2 placed third with just over 450,000 units for combined sales of nearly 1 million units. The Blind Side opened in second place with sales in between those two, though it was a little close to the lower end. Also of note was Mad Men: Season Three with roughly 25,000 units, which is excellent for a TV release.